Friday, March 6, 2015

The Associated Press Is Leading the Charge to Deploy Robo-journalists

According to the AP, no journos were harmed in the making of this venture.
From the Verge:

AP will use 'robot journalists' to expand its college sports coverage 
The news organization continues to grow its automated coverage wing
The Associated Press plans to expand its collegiate sports coverage using automation technology instead of human reporters. The news organization's team of robot journalists will compile text based on game statistics provided by the NCAA. The move will expand AP's sports coverage to include Division I baseball, Division I women’s basketball, Division II and III football, and Division II and III men’s basketball.

"This will mean thousands of more stories on the AP wire, which will remain unmatched in the industry," Barry Bedlan, AP's deputy director of sports products said in a statement. "Every college sports town will have some level of coverage."

AP already uses this technology for some of its business reporting, which often involves wrangling large amounts of data into a clear and readable story. In January, AP used the robots to cover Apple's record-breaking quarterly earnings. The technology, which was developed by the language generation platform Automated Insights, is also used by Allstate, Comcast, and Yahoo....MORE
Related:
Automating the Newsroom: The AP's Robot Copy Editor
Robo-journalists: Beyond the Quakebot
Robot Writing Moves from Journalism to Wall Street
And Here Come the Robo-journalists "The CIA Invests in Narrative Science and Its Automated Writers"
Sure, MoneyBeat Says Their Posts Are Not Written by Robots But How Can We Know?
"Reuters gutting web infrastructure for 'Reuters Next,' its big online retooling"
Washington Post considered using robot sportswriters 
A Deep Dive Into the Future of RoboAnalysts (will entry level hedgies still command $353K to start?)